BEST OF CRIME with Jessie Keane

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

JESSIE KEANE

to share her BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

This has to be Stephen King. Ever since I picked up Carrie, I’ve been a fan. I truly believe he’s one of our greatest living writers. My favorite book of his? Duma Key.

... FILMS/MOVIES

I’ve just seen The Irishman with Robert de Niro and Al Pacino. A genuinely great film, fantastic actors, loved it.

... TV DRAMAS

This will probably come as a surprise to my fans because of the gritty nature of the books I write, but I love Midsomer Murders. So gentle, so cosy (all right, a bit gruesome too), like an old comfy pair of slippers that I just love to slip into.

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Have to hark back to Stephen King here, and his novel Doctor Sleep – Rose is truly terrifying.

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

I have to choose my own creation DI Romilly Kane. She appears for the first time in The Edge and gives Kit Miller quite a hard time…

... MURDER WEAPONS

The .38 revolver favored by Max Carter in Dirty Game.

    

... DEATH SCENES

The crucifixion in the DaVinci Code, just bizarre, loved that.

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

I rarely use the internet for research. I have a LOT of books to refer to instead.

... WRITING TIPS

Keep going! I cannot emphasise the importance of this too strongly. People will tell you that you’re a dreamer. That you’re mad. That you ought to get a proper job. Ignore all that. Persist.

... WRITING SNACKS

Got to be sherbet lemons!

About JESSIE KEANE

Jessie is a Sunday Times top ten bestselling author with 14 fiction books to her name - although her own life has been as eventful as many of her characters! Born in a caravan to a Romany mother, she has lived at both ends of the social spectrum. Her gritty hard-hitting books are centred around the darker side of London, in particular in Soho. It was a world that fascinated Jessie when she ran away to the capital as a teen, and was to provide her inspiration when she began writing years later.

Find Jessie Keane on her website and on Twitter - @realjessiekeane

About THE KNOCK

Publisher's description

Dora O’Brien had a good start in life, but things went bad when she began to mix with the wrong company. Pregnant by her gangster lover, she found herself on the streets and then in the grips of a bent copper called Donny Maguire.

When her daughter Angel is born, Dora is already under the influence of drink and drugs, and handed around to Donny’s mates. Growing up in the shadow of her mother’s abusive relationship, Angel is nothing like her mother, but when matters turn murderous, Angel is forced to grow up fast and survival becomes the name of the game.

For some, being on the wrong side of the law is the safest place to be...

The Knock was published by Pan Macmillan on 9 January 2020.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

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BEST OF CRIME with Catherine Steadman

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

CATHERINE STEADMAN

to share her BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

Gillian Flynn.

... FILMS/MOVIES

Seven.

... TV DRAMAS

It’s true crime but ... The Jinx.

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Cat Woman (Tim Burton’s Batman Returns).

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

Rebus (I can’t not think of Ken Stott in this role).

... MURDER WEAPONS

Plant pot on head, lol! See Hitchcock’s ‘A Lady Vanishes’.

    

... DEATH SCENES

I did an episode of Midsomer Murders a couple of years ago where my husband was run over by a decommissioned WW2 tank after a cosplay Blitz party, lol!

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

YouTube - a treasure trove of weapon information and practical tips...

... WRITING TIPS

A thriller is around 85,000 words: that’s 34 chapters at about 2500 words each. I am to get around 2500 to 3000 words a day. Don’t judge the first draft, just redraft before passing it on to anyone else. It’s so much easier to whittle a story out of a rough first draft than to try and write a third draft out of thin air.

... WRITING SNACKS

 Coffee.

About CATHERINE STEADMAN

Catherine Steadman is an actress and writer based in North London. She has appeared in leading roles on British television as well as on stage in the West End, most recently in The Rook on Starz and Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution in 2018. In 2016 she was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in Oppenheimer. She is best known for her role as Mabel Lane Fox in Downton Abbey. She grew up in the New Forest and now lives in London with a small dog and average sized man. Her first novel Something in the Water was selected for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club in July 2018 and has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox for adaption, with Reese Witherspoon attached to produce. It was also a Richard & Judy Book Club pick in 2019.

Find Catherine Steadman on Twitter - @CatSteadman

About MR NOBODY

Publisher's description

When a man is found on a Norfolk beach, drifting in and out of consciousness, with no identification and unable to speak, interest in him is sparked immediately. From the hospital staff who find themselves inexplicably drawn to him; to international medical experts who are baffled by him; to the national press who call him Mr Nobody; everyone wants answers. 

Who is this man? And what happened to him? 

Neuropsychiatrist Dr Emma Lewis is asked to assess the patient. This is her field of expertise, this is the chance she’s been waiting for and this case could make her name known across the world. But therein lies the danger. Emma left this same small town in Norfolk fourteen years ago and has taken great pains to cover all traces of her past since then. 

But now something – or – someone – is calling her back. And the more time Emma spends with her patient, the more alarmed she comes. Has she walked into danger?

Mr Nobody was published by Simon & Schuster on 9 January 2020.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

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Jewish Book Week 2020

This year, Jewish Book Week takes place from 29 February to 8 March 2020 - at King’s Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG and JW3, 341-351 Finchley Road, London NW3 6ET. 

Yet again, there are plenty of fabulous events and live performances on offer.

Great events
For nine days, Jewish Book Week brings together nearly 200 multi-award winning writers from the worlds of history, journalism, philosophy, science, art, music, poetry and fiction in a celebration of ideas. Themes range from memory to espionage to what it means to be a 'Jewish writer'.

The 2020 line-up includes:

• Emma Barnett
• Tom Bower
• Camilla Cavendish
• Gavin Esler
• Jonathan Freedland
• Nicci Gerrard
• Adam Gopnik
• Howard Jacobson
• Rachel Johnson
• Norman Lebrecht
• Sue MacGregor
• Douglas Murray
• Melanie Phillips
• Philippe Sands
• Marcus du Sautoy
• Simon Schama
• Tom Segev
• Elif Shafak
• Martin Rees
• Andrew Robinson
• Edmund de Waal
• A.B. Yehoshua

Live performance is a big feature – and this year, highlights include Rob ‘Judge’ Rinder and singer Claire Martin with music of Hollywood’s golden age, and Simon Schama performing his Wordy: The Show.

Tickets are now available! To see the full programme and book your tickets, click here.

First-ever family day

Jewish Book Week's first-ever 'Family Day' is on Sunday 2nd February, when Murderous Math's Kjartan Poskitt celebrates his hero The Great Houdini: The World's Most Amazing Escape Artist and Michael Rosen discusses The Missing: The True Story of My Family in WWII, his new book on speaking with children about the Holocaust.

Schools programme

Jewish Book Week is running a speakers programme  for schools in the London area. Many of the authors appearing at Jewish Book Week generously donate their time to speak in schools in the Greater London area about topics ranging from Politics to Physics, supporting Jewish Book Week's goal of encouraging conversations and learning within the Jewish community and beyond.

For more information, visit the Jewish Book Week website here.

Follow the #JBW20 hashtag on social media and the Jewish Book Week Twitter account - @JewishBookWeek

BEST OF CRIME with Helen Sedgwick

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

HELEN SEDGWICK

to share her BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

Kate Atkinson is one of my favourites, as is Sophie Hannah – I like my crime with a strong dose of feminism, intersecting narratives and multiple points of view.

... FILMS/MOVIES

I love crime films that are offbeat and genre bending – the deep black quirkiness of Fargo, the folk horror genius of Wicker Man. 

... TV DRAMAS

It’s got to be Twin Peaks for me. The subversion of the supernatural colliding with the police procedural, the stunning visual style and soundtrack, the innovative and unsettling use of pace… Twin Peaks all the way!

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

I’m going to choose a killer who’s drawn with such humanity you can’t help but understand why: Roy Batty from Blade Runner.

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

My childhood favourite was always Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps it was for his mix of intense logic and bohemian eccentricity or – more likely – his absolute refusal to tone himself down in order to make anyone else comfortable.

... MURDER WEAPONS

I like poisoning with weirdly beautiful and highly toxic plants, stabbing with glistening icicles, and the idea of leaving people to float alone in space. 

    

... DEATH SCENES

You never see an actual death, but Janice Galloway’s short story The Meat is horrific and chilling and, once read, will never be forgotten.

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

I love wild, frozen places, so I’d recommend the British Antarctic Survey blogs to give a real sense of what it must be like living on the remotest place on earth.

... WRITING TIPS

Go with your instincts, read and write and keep writing – and don’t waste too much time on social media.

... WRITING SNACKS

At the very least there’ll be a large mug of tea and a small mug of very strong coffee on the desk at any one time. I grow vegetables and love to munch on fresh pea shoots, alongside salted caramel chocolate.

About HELEN SEDGWICK

Helen Sedgwick is the author of The Comet Seekers, selected as a best book of 2016 by the Herald, and The Growing Season, shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year in 2018. She has an MLitt in Creative Writing from Glasgow University and won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Before she became an author, she was a research physicist with a PhD in Physics from Edinburgh University.

Find Helen Sedgwick on her website and on Twitter - @helensedgwick

About WHEN THE DEAD COME CALLING

Publisher's description

A murder investigation unearths the brutal history of a village where long buried secrets threaten a small community 

When psychotherapist Alexis Cosse is found murdered in the playground of the sleepy northern village of Burrowhead, the local police force set out to investigate. It’s not long before they uncover a maelstrom of racism, misogyny and homophobia. 

But there’s worse to come. Shaken by the revelations and beginning to doubt her relationship with her husband Fergus, DI Georgie Strachan soon realizes that something very bad is lurking just below the surface. Meanwhile someone - or something - is hiding in the strange, haunted cave beneath the cliffs.

When the Dead Come Calling was published by Point Blank Books on 9 January 2020.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.